Newsletter

Fall-time already. It feels like spring and summer were here and gone in just a moment. It’s always stunning to me how the cycles of the earth just keep flowing.

This is from Melissa Michaels, Arlyn’s dancing mentor –

“Greetings friends. As our election season approaches, please take a moment to confirm that you are CURRENTLY REGISTERED TO VOTE. Although the system is not working as ideally as we know it can and must, our voting voices absolutely matter in the shaping of our future. For those of you in Colorado, the following link will allow you to check your voting status and sign up if you are not yet registered. NOW is the time to register. October 9th is our last chance to register for this coming election. GO FOR IT!”

https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter-classic/secuRegVoterIntro.do

many blessings!

Arlyn (and David)

www.devadancing.com and www.embodyingrhythm.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . .UPCOMING EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Marble Fall Fest

Fundraiser for Marble’s community fund

$20 for two days of live music Saturday Oct. 6 and Sunday Oct. 7 – Bring a Friend!

David with Sticky Mulligan – October 6 – 6pm

David and Arlyn with FEAST – October 6 – 7:30pm

all sorts of other good bands too!

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Untitled Fall Poem

The pears are ripening, falling and rotting.

The blue bugs with the fuzzy white butts are back in season.

The cattails have been painted gold to match the blazing rabbit-brush.

David and I were just out doing some backpacking and hiking in the wilderness. It is beautiful up in the high country right now and I recommend a trip. Especially if you tie it in with seeing some live music. . . I find the wilderness to be so cleansing, even just being out for an afternoon makes a big difference for my well-being. It also helps me to be more at peace with my garden to see how plants come and go in the wild – I feel that simply witnessing nature is an important part of life. The presence found in nature is such a great teacher of being okay with the way things are and going with the flow.

Our friends Blaine and Sarah have arrived from Maryland and rehearsal for Pretty Gritty sounds great! We’re excited for their Colorado tour. The schedule is below. This is fun, soulful, danceable music! Here are two videos so you can get a taste of them. . .Hey You Highway

“Where Everything Is Music” by Jelaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks Don’t worry about saving these songs! And if one of our instruments breaks, it doesn’t matter. We have fallen into the place where everything is music. The strumming and the flute notes rise into the atmosphere, and even if the whole world’s harp should burn up, there will still be hidden instruments playing. So the candle flickers and goes out. We have a piece of flint, and a spark. This singing art is sea foam. The graceful movements come from a pearl somewhere on the ocean floor. Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge of driftwood along the beach, wanting! They derive from a slow and powerful root that we can’t see. Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.

Dear One,

Happy Spring Equinox!

I wish I could speak like music. I wish I could put the swaying splendor of the fields into words So that you could hold Truth against your body and dance. I am trying the best I can with this crude brush, the tongue,To cover you with light. I wish I could speak like divine music. I want to give you the sublime rhythms of this earth and the sky’s limbs As they joyously spin and surrender, surrender against God’s luminous breath.Hafiz wants you to hold me against your precious body And dance, DANCE.~Hafiz

I’m so excited for the upcoming Open Dance Space on Sunday March 22 from 2-5pm at the Blue Sage in Paonia that I wanted to send you all another email to remind you about it. An exploration of movement and sound through deep listening. I hope you can join David and I for this grand adventure. Open to the whole family. Please arrive at 2pm even if you can’t stay for the whole afternoon.

The last time we had the combination of live music with the Open Dance Space, I found it to be quite ecstatic. The longer time-frame will allow for a deep alchemy to occur of movement and sound – as well as personally for anything you are being with in the turning of spring.

“Creative movement is a function of our innate biological rhythms and is thus closer to natural human expression than any other.” ~Diane Lynch Fraser

And, I’m happy to announce the Embodying Rhythm 7-week frame drum class with David Alderdice (I’ll be there as an assistant). Wednesdays 7-8:30pm, at the Blue Sage in Paonia May 6 – June 17, 2009.We will explore and expand our rhythmic awareness with traditional grooves and modern applications.Open to beginners. Frame drums available to use.Call 527-3826 for more information and to sign up. $57 for all 7 classes.

I have several KVNF public radio Medicine Shows coming up: Sundays 10am – 1pm: March 29, April 12 & April 19. http://www.kvnf.org/

Blessings and I look forward to seeing you soon (maybe even at the open dance space march 22, 2-5pm),